Venice Book Art Reveal and Q&A
Without further ado, here is the BEAUTIFUL STUNNING SHOWSTOPPING SENSATIONAL art by Jaria Rambaran:
Isn’t it just exquisite?? Doesn’t it look like a fairy tale?
She really captured the magic of Venice, the intimate romance between the two MC’s, and all the luscious historical details I really wanted to have depicted.
It was an absolute dream to work with Jaria. I’ve loved her work for years, and I’m still pinching myself that I got to commission her to bring my Venice Book to life! (aka BY ALL THE SAINTS & STARS)
I’m so fortunate to call Jaria a dear friend, and to have her as a critique partner for VB. She’s become one of its strongest supporters, so she just GETS it, y’know?? She knows these characters and has captured them so perfectly.
She was also so patient with my quite specific requests when it came to the character details and the architecture, which I am eternally grateful for 💕
I’ll never forget when I saw the almost-final version of the artwork, once the characters had been rendered, and I let out an unholy shriek and thought “IT’S THEM!!”
Please check out her other beautiful work here, and give her a follow on instagram if you’re not already!! Here’s her art account and her writing account. (Don’t even get me started on her INCREDIBLE novel. Actually no, please do get me started, it’s one of my favorite books EVER.)
I also thought it would be fun to do a Q&A with Jaria and get more detail about how she creates her beautiful artworks! Buckle up and let’s dive in!
1) How do you approach each commission?
The dry answer is I first have conversations with my clients about their vision, their characters, chosen scene, backgrounds, props, and the commission’s intended use (book cover/merch etc). By gauging the complexity of the piece I can estimate the production time and therefore give a quote.
The way more interesting answer is that I try to approach every commission as unique because every author is unique. I also write, so I want you to look at your painting, to go: ‘Oh my god! I feel so seen, and understood!” I try to understand authors in relation to what they write, how you present it versus the work itself, and your energy in comparison to your characters.
Every detail informs how I conceptualize the story, so everything you want to share is super helpful. Hopefully, the process is also fun because if we are both excited, we get to exchange that energy, collaborate, and it elevates the work.
This with a pinterest board is everything I need.
(Here's a snapshot of my board for Venice Book 👀 ~M)
No matter how messy you think your pinterest board is, I can see what your visual focuses are: whether it’s sumptuous clothing, mood, character action, or setting. I see what you consider beautiful; what you value/prioritize; and what the tone of your book is.
Face casts are great, I’m always happy to have a starting point for references to paint from!
After some time I will deliver sketches and concepts to choose from, and whichever speaks to you best is what we go with! To be honest, the rest is the hours required to do a painting, perhaps 20-40 hours depending on the painting(s)? Like all artists, I tend to go through a lot of podcasts, books, tv shows and movies to keep me company.
I send clients updates so they can see my progress, to offer comments and suggest adjustments. From there it’s really only a matter of time until the final delivery!
2) How did you tackle depicting Venice for this one?
This was such a unique challenge because Venice is one of the most beautiful, recognizable, and photographed cities on the planet.
Illustrators and concept artists usually splice reference photos together of recognizable architecture as shorthand for a location, then paint over them. I learnt on my second rough draft of the background that wasn’t going to cut it. Primarily because Venice is small, contained, and I couldn’t carelessly put landmarks and canals together.
Around the same time you pointed out a building I inserted was from St-Mark’s Square, and couldn’t really go in that location. That just confirmed to me it was time to switch approaches!
I needed the widest canal possible for the painting to breathe, so that left me with the Grand Canal. All the best references I already put together placed us in front of the Rialto bridge, so I defaulted to emulating that specific spot in Venice as best as possible!
I’m more comfortable with characters than with environments, so I agonized on how to recreate Venice in a dreamlike way rather than photo-realism because I knew that was more achievable for me. Hopefully in time, the background illustration will hold up! (I’d say it does! It’s absolutely amazing! ~M)
3) What was tricky/challenging about this commission?
The tricky challenging aspect of this commission is I love this book, and wanted to push my skills to the limit to achieve the vision I had for it!
I’m a character artist first and an environment artist when necessary, so I forced myself to get the environment done first before touching the characters. It was one of the most demanding ones I’ve ever done.
I explained before how replicating a real location was difficult, but that didn’t include gathering the photos, splicing them together in the right perspective, including water which is notoriously hard to do. It had to look seamless, natural and realistic! They needed to be integrated to the right colour palette at the right time of day, then paint over the whole thing, and leave room for the characters!
Once I had everything down I got to work on La Syrena and Marcantonio. Getting their entwined poses perfect was important to both of us so it took a lot of limb adjustments but we got there! Then their hair, volumes of material, and the sunset lighting were the details to make the painting.
I had to make sure the garter with the knife was visible with the skirts. And that thigh grab? I lovingly laboured over Marcantonio grabbing LA Syerna’s inner thigh to make sure the viewer could feel it!
(I call it the "lover boy death grip" and I'm obsessed ~M)
4) What was your favorite part of this commission?
Working together of course! Seriously, I almost never work on a book I’ve actually read, let alone a book I love that I’ve read twice! Beyond this commission we’re critique partners, and friends! We have such similar interests, and we’ve spent so much time making memes and talking about these characters that we got to skip dozens of email exchanges right to the heart of the scene.
Getting to be in this supportive, like-minded creative sandbox was so special. It’s part of what makes you an amazing collaborator and author! In my experience as an illustrator and concept artist, that collaborative energy doesn’t always happen, and I’m so grateful that it happened for this painting!
Welp, I’m off to go cry at how sweet that was! Thank you so much to Jaria for her incredible artistic talent, and for the fascinating insights into her process! It was a truly wonderful experience, so please go give Jaria a follow and support her art and writing.
Thanks for reading, and for checking out my new website.
More soon!
Stay safe.
~M